the various descriptions of persons who were most likely to accede to their desires. No reply however was returned, and on the appearance of the transports all the French and Spanish ships were moved up the Channel leading to the Caraccas. On the 18th May an address was despatched to the Marquis Solano, Governor-General of the province of Andalusia, who acknowledged the receipt of the letter, but requested no more communications of the kind should be forwarded to him. The Marquis soon afterwards fell a victim to the fury of the populace.
At length, after several long conferences and many letters had passed between the British Commanders and the leading persons of Cadiz, particularly stipulating on the part of the former, that the French ships should be made over to them as a preliminary act, a Convention was signed by each party; but nothing could induce the Spaniards to allow their new friends to interfere in the capture of those vessels, nor would they permit the English troops to take post in the vicinity of the port, declaring that they were themselves in sufficient force to reduce their quondam ally, whom they afterwards attacked, and compelled to surrender at discretion[1].
Affairs were in this state when, on the 11th June, Lord Collingwood came into the fleet, and Rear-Admiral Purvis delivered to his Lordship the despatches he had made up for the information of the Government at home.
Towards the close of the same year, the Commander-in-Chief having resumed his station off Toulon, Rear-Admiral Purvis, on the receipt of intelligence that the French had possessed themselves of Madrid, proceeded from Gibraltar to Cadiz, in the Atlas of 74 guns, in order to secure the Spanish fleet from falling into the hands of the enemy. On his arrival he found only one ship of the line and a frigate in commission, and all the others in sad disorder in every respect. His first object was to obtain permission to fit the Spanish ships and prepare them for sea, for which purpose he applied to the Governor of Cadiz, the Commandant-General of the Marine, and the Prince de Montforte, Governor-General of the pro-
- ↑ The French squadron at Cadiz consisted of five ships of the line and out frigate, under the orders of a Flag-Officer.
